ON OUR WATCH: Omar Al Sayed, a Palestinian artist, speaks to Watch the State. When we stumbled upon Omar’s work over a year ago, it shifted something in us. We’re constantly bombarded with images and videos of Palestinian suffering — it narrows our gaze. We begin to see Palestinians only as victims, as statistics of violence and dispossession. But that is a dangerous reduction.
Omar’s art reminds us that Palestinians are brave, joyful, funny, and multidimensional. He resist the single story, instead capturing the fullness of human experience — love, laughter, longing, resistance. They’re profoundly honest and human, refusing despair even in a burning world.
As Omar says, “Like any Palestinian, I don’t have the luxury of tapping in and out of supporting the Palestinian cause. We are the cause.” His work balances that responsibility while refusing to let it erase the light, the humour, the imagination that sustains life.
Brian Eno once wrote: “Stop thinking about art works as objects and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. What makes a work of art good for you is not something that’s already inside it but something that happens inside you.” That is the gift of Omar’s practice. It connects us through a universal truth: we are all dreamers.
